You Ask, We Answer: Source of word 'Sheboygan' a mystery

Editor's note: In today's "You ask, we answer" feature, we answer questions about the origin of the word "Sheboygan," including the mysterious connection mermaids have to the city's name. To submit your own question go to www.sheboyganpress.com/ask

Editor's question: Have you heard of a theory different than one of those in the story? Let us know! Click here to comment.

Do you know what the word Sheboygan means?

Of course you do. Theories have abounded on the meaning of the city's name since, by one estimate, around 1688.

Those theories range from the cryptic "place of the mermaid," which was included in the 1944 book "Historic Sheboygan County" by Gustave William Buchen, to "where the waters meet."

That's the meaning favored by city historian Bill Wangemann.

"To me, the one that makes most sense - and the Indians weren't stupid - is 'where the waters meet,'" Wangemann said. "People don't realize how important the Sheboygan River was to them for food, travel, fresh water."

Describing the place where the Sheboygan River meets Lake Michigan, "where the waters meet" is a plausible answer.

There are, however, dozens of others.

Decades of research have come up with a variety of other contenders, all taken from what early settlers surmised from their Native American hosts' odd language.

One that popped up repeatedly in stories published in The Sheboygan Press in the 1950s is "large threshing place for rice."

Attributed to Edward Taube of Racine, who was with the University of Wisconsin-Racine Extension Center, that meaning is said to refer to plantings of rice in the marshy borders of the river and small creeks.

According to that theory, "Sheboygan" came from an Algonquin word.

"There were various Indian tribes that lived here," Wangemann said. "There might have been a variety of words for different things. A lot of them spoke different dialects. As white men settled on the East Cost, they drove Indians ever further west. Even some Algonquins were here who came from New York state."

In December of 1950, Taube wrote that Sheboygan made its first appearance on a European map in 1688, which was long before any white settlers had set up camp where we now live.

The Wisconsin Historical Society's web site says two meanings have been assigned to the word Sheboygan: "a noise underground" and "river disappearing underground."

No explanation is given, but an article in the March 24, 1933, edition of The Sheboygan Press might provide a clue.

The fountain in Fountain Park (called Evergreen Park back then) was bored in 1875, bubbling with what was long thought to be healing water. The article suggests an Indian chose the location of the fountain because he heard water underground.

The possibility of mysterious water sounds underground might also explain the "place of the mermaid," though there hasn't been any further study.

"I have no idea," Wangemann said of the mermaid theory's source. "Nobody knows for sure."

Wangemann said he frequently fields questions about the origin of the word Sheboygan, and although he knows plenty of history he can't answer that question definitively.

"When push comes to shove, we're never going to know," he said. "All we've got is things the early white men thought they heard the Indians say."

Reach Janet Weyandt at 920-453-5121

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